Here are my go-to resources for accessibility. Engaging in inclusive design means you:
- Increase access to services, goods or facilities
- Save on potential retrofitting costs in the long-term
- Reduce the risk of losing customers
- Meet legal standards like the AODA
- Support inclusion because access to information is a human right
Join the #a11y conversation and share the knowledge!
Best Practices
- AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design (RGD)
- Inclusive Design Guide (Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University)
- UX & Usability Articles (Nielsen Norman Group)
- Web ABC Toolkit – Building an Accessibility Business Case
Conferences + Meetups
Documents + Graphics
- How to Make Digital Assets Accessible: Infographics
- Accessible Infographics
- Inclusive Design: How to Make Your Visuals Accessible to All
- Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker (tool)
- WebAIM offers information on PDF accessibility using Acrobat (article)
Web Development
- A11y Style Guide
Pattern and CSS style guide with code examples - Apple Developer: Human Interface Guidelines – Accessibility
Overview of accessibility/built-in assistive technology features for iOS and guidelines for general accessible design on mobile apps
User Testing
It’s important to do both automated and manual testing. Automated testing checks the website structure against success criteria in the WCAG 2.0+ guidelines, while manual testing will ensure the user experience is actually accessible for people with disabilities.
For automated testing of HTML and the website’s coded structure, you can use:
- WAVE Tool (WebAIM)
- A-Checker (IDRC)
- Checklist for WCAG Compliance (A11y Project)
Manual testing resources and samples:
Video Captioning
Videos
- Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) Captioning Guide
Reference guide for vendors producing captioning developed by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association of the Deaf - Ryerson Accessibility Guide: Captioning & Description
General guide to open/closed captioning and editing - Closed captions on YouTube
Step-by-step instructions for adding closed captions to your videos